1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to proportioning systems for proportioning liquids, and, more particularly, to a novel apparatus and method for providing a beverage that is prepared from accurate proportions of at least two different liquids such as a flavored syrup and carbonated water.
2. The Prior Art
Various liquid products are produced from two or more liquids which are blended in preselected proportions to produce the final product. For example, a beverage is produced from a syrup which is blended with either plain or carbonated water and dispensed into a suitable container such as a bottle. One exciting new development in the beverage market is the recent trend toward a customer-operated beverage dispenser that dispenses any one of a number of preselected beverages directly into the customer's bottle. In the case of carbonated beverages, a syrup is premixed with carbonated water before it is introduced into the particular bottle. One such system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,339,874. Perhaps the greatest difficulty encountered by such a system as that described in the foregoing patent is the fact that it requires the use of a very expensive proportioning pump in order to achieve the correct ratio between the syrup and the carbonated water. One such proportioning pump is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,388,725. As can be readily seen, a beverage kiosk capable of delivering, say, ten different beverage flavors will require ten different proportioning pumps in order to provide a separate proportioning pump for each of the beverage flavors dispensed thereby. This alone increases the cost for each beverage kiosk by hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.
Historically, proportioning pumps were required in this type of beverage dispensing kiosk since the fill mechanism operated on a simple fill concept wherein the preblended beverage produced by the proportioning pump was simply dispensed into the bottle until the bottle was filled regardless of the size of the bottle. This allowed the customer to select from a range of sizes of suitable bottles for the preselected beverage. Importantly, the correct proportions of the various liquids was obtained, as stated above, through the use of relatively expensive proportioning pumps.
One alternative to these types of proportioning pumps would be for the customer to designate the size of bottle to be filled at the time the beverage flavor selection as made. The proper quantity of syrup would then be dispensed directly into the bottle and then the bottle would be filled with carbonated water. However, such a system is fraught with the potential for fraud on the part of the customer in that it is conceivable that the customer could designate a large capacity bottle while actually using a smaller capacity bottle in order to obtain a beverage having a high concentration of syrup. Since the beverage is sold by bottle size the kiosk owner would be cheated out of the value of the extra syrup obtained by the foregoing scheme.
Another problem with this type of proportioning pump is the fact that if one wants to change the ratios of the two liquids blended by the proportioning pump one must physically alter the respective settings of the pistons, etc., in the proportioning pump. This becomes particularly relevant if one desires to selectively alter the syrup ratio of a beverage to satisfy certain regional tastes for that particular beverage.
Another major drawback to the conventional proportioning pump is that it is not configured to being capable of dispensing a beverage prepared from more than two liquid constituents. This means that in the absence of extensive redesign, the conventional proportioning pump can not be used to produce, say, a low carbonation beverage wherein water is added to the beverage in conjunction with carbonated water in order to produce the low carbonation condition called for in that particular beverage.
In view of the foregoing, it would be an advancement in the art to provide a relatively simple apparatus and method for dispensing accurate proportions of two or more liquid components of a liquid solution into a container. It would be an even further advancement in the art to provide a beverage dispensing apparatus that is particularly characterized by the absence of proportioning pumps. It would also be an advancement in the art to provide a beverage dispensing apparatus and method for selectively changing the proportions of the various liquid components of a beverage in order to meet differences in consumer preferences in different areas of the world. It would also be an advancement in the art to provide a beverage dispenser apparatus and method that dispenses accurately proportioned liquid constituents into a bottle regardless of the size of the bottle. Another advancement in the art would be to dispense accurate proportions of two or more liquid components into a container. Such a novel apparatus and method is disclosed and claimed herein.